Ok, I’m exaggerating a little, but let me explain for a second. I was walking down the street with my friend Alexandra recently, and we passed by a new home decor store, and I asked her if she liked it. I loved her response:

“Yeah, it’s ok. I mean, it’s basically the ambient taste right now.”

Me: “What do you mean, ambient taste?”

“Oh, you know – it’s kind of what everyone likes these days, you see it everywhere, and you like it too without even really thinking about it.”

Oh, of course, that makes perfect sense. I have that feeling myself a lot of the time. It happens, for example, every time I see…

Brooklyn Vintage style

I’m not even going to talk about hipsters, I’ll spare you all that, but the whole fake old restaurant thing – chipped china so it looks used, artificially aged paintings – that I discovered in New York, has spread all over now, and it’s found its fullest expression in Brooklyn*. Coffee shops with their fake antique espresso machines with perfect shiny red paint are so prolific (even in Paris, where real antique Parisian bistros are all over the place) that we don’t even recognize it as a style. That’s probably why I love giving my eyes a break at my corner cafe in New York, called Fika – it’s got Scandinavian decor, it doesn’t really have the “ambient style” or any style at all, to be honest – almost to the point of me not really liking the decor, but at least it’s something different.

Instagram Blogger style

White jeans and skinny thighs with a coffee mug in hand, still life, magazine, glasses nonchalantly placed on the light wood table – not only does the style not differ much from one account to the next, but the poses are pretty much always the same, including the feet turned slightly inward.

I put myself in this category too, with my minimalist-tomboy-Valentino-glasses-Céline style, but I still have my honor, since I don’t have skinny thighs, hehehe.

But otherwise, I think I’m totally “ambient style”.

I’d laugh about it, if I didn’t realize that when it comes to apartments, I’m also a big cliché.

You just need to check out my Pinterest to get a little shock of normality with my:

Pinterest apartment style

It’s the mix of the big white sofa, white furry rug, some ethnic details and a few vintagy midcentury touches. You see what I mean?

It’s exactly my style, with the vacation home option for me – the day when I’ll have a hammock at my house, I’ll probably feel like I’ve finally won at life.

I realized this – not just from my Pinterest page, but last summer when I was looking for a not too ridiculously expensive sofa (you, know, because of my transition apartment thing**) and it was impossible for me to find a sofa that didn’t have a midcentury feel.

I mean, I really like the 50s and 60s, but right now, in New York, since it’s the only thing you can find, it’s ended up becoming really, really – I mean really – cheap and common.

So, of course, I finally settled on (drumroll, please) a big white sofa.

Though when it comes to Pinterest apartment style, it reassures me to think that I’ve had the same taste since I was 15, and that I’ll still have the same taste even when it’s not trendy anymore. Okay but actually, it’s still slightly worrying, and this all brings me back to my initial question, which will help you see why I’m talking about all of this in what was supposed to be an editor’s letter about the blog.

It’s because I’ve noticed that trends created online are incredibly powerful, and they tend to stick around for a long time because there’s no one to stop them.

Before this, magazines were telling us about trends, things had to change a little bit each season, and they had almost no way of knowing what readers actually liked. So it was up to editors to filter content and they had to try to create a unique point of view.

But with the internet, things are totally different. There are two things that have an influence on trends:

1/ How many likes something gets is what influences content – and since most sites are just in a race for likes, they publish things that are sure to be successful – so if white jeans and skinny thighs get a lot of likes, we can be sure to see them over and over, ad infinitum.

2/ Things that are posted link back to each other, by way of cookies (For example, the ads that follow you from site to site for those shoes you almost bought). You get ads that say “if you liked that, you’ll like this” and “if you follow this page, you’ll also like this one” so you end up seeing the same type of content over and over. It confines us within our own little worlds.

Even though diversity is just one click away, we don’t see it anymore – looking for it is becoming more and more complicated.

And since we’re only seeing content that has been specially selected for us so that we’ll like like like***, it’s easy to get bored very quickly. And to have the feeling that everything looks alike.

So, there you go. I don’t have any solutions to propose, other than telling you that personally, I think we’re eventually going to get sick of the culture of “likes” and we’ll move on to something new.

At the Studio, we don’t really pay attention to those things – we try to talk about what interests us personally, even if sometimes we are a little bit outside of the norm, and it may not be what most people like. It’s about trying to have a unique point of view, and that’s what we want to try to cultivate here more and more.

I’ll leave you on that note. I need to go take a shower, and pick out my white jeans for the day :)))

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*I’m a little ashamed to say that I was tricked the first few times, and really thought I was in an old world Italian restaurant, even though “old world” really doesn’t mean anything in New York…

** Yes, of course, I’m still in my “transition apartment” – I think we are all familiar with those kinds of transitions…

*** Instagram is confusing for that reason, it’s always the same types of photos that get tons of likes. As soon as you move away from the typical colorful images or pretty landscapes, it seems like no one cares. You have to be strong to keep posting things that are a little different.

The places in NYC that are really “old” (well, it’s relative) and classic tend to not look as stylish as the new faux-old places, although I think they have the true kind of stylishness, a real mood as you sit there, history. For example our version of the old world Italian are those mafioso places like Grotto Azzurra. Or the Four Seasons, which has a really great classic (again mid-century) style (but at least it’s authentic midcentury), but which people have seen so many times it can look a little dated.

I adore this post – there is a book called the filter bubble – and it relates to cookies and facebook that puts us in a bubble on the internet – introducing us only to things we are guaranteed to like. I was just thinking in the shower – haha – about how lucky I am to have blogs, pinterest, and the internet to introduce me to new things and styles. I live in the suburbs and when I was young it was difficult to be “fashion forward” when everyone else was wearing the same thing like a uniform. That’s why I love blogs today!

Thank you so much for writing this! It seems like once a new trend hits… we totally over saturate the market with it. I refuse to believe that everyone loves wearing Birkenstocks. But because someone (thanks Celine) said that they were cool, now we are all forced to wear them. I refuse!

Yes, I have been thinking along the same lines! It is so boring to see so much inauthentic decor and I never did like the whole “anthropology” look. (What is it with antlers in so many homes?!) And blog/Pinterest photos are starting to depress me. I love variety, authenticity, creativity and unique voices but the “Like”culture is diluting all that and making things look the same everywhere. It is global blandification.

Hi- Wow.. I love that ..”global blandification” However, that has always been the case but not so much globally until the internet. Things have always been cool, or “in” and there is that unsaid or said pressure to conform and like those things. I have literally been with a group of women shopping where they are all oohing and aaahing over something and someone asks me what I think, and I have said, “I don’t like it at all”. You should see the reaction..blank stares and mouths agape. What do you say to someone who disagrees? How do you respond? They just avoided me the rest of the evening, and I felt pretty ok with that. I will not be pressured to like what “everyone” appears to like. I am my own person, and I have enough confidence to stay true to myself.

A good way to get away from those same-samey ads? Install AdBlock, and it’s free (well, you should donate a little as it’s made by one programmer and it’s become his sole source of income). It’ll change your life, promise.

If you click on the first results of a Google search, it is more likely to stay in the first results! hmmm, it’s a strange thought. That is how untrue but intriguing headlines stay so prevalent. So, start from page 10 ?

Oh yes! Don’t even get me started about the same kind of beauty photos. Products kept on a white sheet. Every freaking single one of the photos on Instagram and blogs is the same. It’s like no one has any originality or creativity.

Well said Lou, about how so many people buy clothes and accessories in order to stand out from the crowd and yet they just manage to join the same herd (of sheep)*.

I was at London’s #1 airport recently and my fellow travellers all looked pretty much the same, irrespective of the actual brand / price of what they were wearing. The one person in the entire departure lounge who stood out from the crowd and looked amazing was an Indian woman who was wearing an emerald green sari. Interesting how by wearing a traditional form of dress (ie conventional) she stood out from everybody else.

*or maybe that is the point – people don’t really want to stand out from the crowd… they want to be part of it, because that feels safer than being original?

But hasn’t it always been like that? I’m not so sure internet has changed trends so much, it’s just that they are much more visible as such. But if you’re slightly curious there’s always a way out, which internet can give you now, as long as you really look for it!
Although, I had similar thoughts the other day for some reason, but about baby names… It just baffles me how everyone has similar ideas at the very same time (hello old names trend!), and yet each person is convinced it’s an individual and independent choice… It has always bothered me slightly, it’s as if we’re all being manipulated by a higher force telling us what and when to like!

I totally agree about Instagram. It seems that people are just copying each other and those predictable photos get the most likes. Ripped skinny jeans, super high heels, hair extensions, big glasses and inflated lips…or is it just me who always comes across those accounts???

Your point about instagram photos and the same types of photos always getting likes is SO TRUE. I’ve noticed this a lot and I do push through and post the things that I like, but sometimes it’s hard not to resist the urge to post something that everyone else will like too!shopsaul.com

it is funny. I just thought about it yesterday. The first warm day in a city with festivals all around (Philly, yo), and all kids (20+) looked exactly the same – short shorts, short tops. Doesn’t anyone want to look different? Stay away from the uniform?

I don’t follow instagram anymore. Try this: If there is a interior or a cloth style you like/admire and there are some few details or items in it/connected with, which look oddly or mismatching to you, you can be sure to have found an original and not a trend follower! : )

Everyone has the same style. It looks good in pictures, but I always wonder, where are these women going in their super high heels? I follow a bunch of different accounts on instagram so that I don’t get bored with the content. Some illustrators, typographers, and Korean fashion models. Instagram should inspire, not bore!

Couldn’t be more excited to read this! SO over those primarily white/curated lifestyle/minimalist Instagram photos. And the fake old decor! So cheesy!

Admittedly, I did fall for the whole minimalist wardrobe aesthetic for a while b/c it’s sort of how I naturally dress and I like the concept. But then every adherent looks like they belong in an issue of Kinfolk with the rustic boots and chambray shirts and linen tunics–it just gets so boring. I’m not throwing away the whole principle, but I definitely had an “ah-ha!” moment when I looked in the mirror one day. Ok, rant over! ;)

I have one that drives me nuts: the blogger pose looking down (at the floor I guess)
*Thanks for expressing my feelings exactly* But that’s the thing with classics no? Like a true Taurus, I’ve always like the same things… nothing changes..but now I feel exposed..no likey

Oh thank you for writing this! I have started a similar article many many times, but, mostly because I’m not as good a writer, I have never finished it. The Instagram bit in particular is spot on. Every sunday me and my brother play Instagram Bingo and see if we can find at least 10 of the same “lazy sunday morning in bed with clean white sheets, bare legs, coffee, some avocado toast or possibly the latest Vogue” pics in my Instagram feed alone – and we always do. It’s sad!
It has come to the point where I don’t even feel like talking about my áctual passions and interests anymore in case the internet would accidentally pick up on it, hype it and make me get bored of it :/ X

Hey G! I challenge you to create imagery and content that isn’t the “same”. You do a good job, but before I delved into your essay, I thought – well hmmm I’m not sure if this site is so different. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s why I come here. This site is a comforting and beautiful place. I do think that there is comfort and safety right now in being “the same” and in trying to hold onto past aesthetics (1950s/60s/90s) because the future is scary. The world, and even America outside the uber-clean Pinterest/Instagram/Tumblr-world is terrifying. By holding onto these aesthetics and recreating them over and over in social media, design and art is a type of denial, and understandably so. I also do think that images of jeans and coffee are an absolute symbol of this: comfortable attainability.

Not trying to “Offend” or “Persuade” you or anyone else reading this comment…..BUT when you say that the world is a SCARY PLACE…I need to speak up. What you are saying is that being alive to you is suffering/dangerous?!?! There’s SO much beauty in the world and comments like these due no justice to the magnitude and wonder of the universe. There IS a life outside your gilded cage….you have been watching too much FOX NEWS and reading far too much PEOPLE magazine to appreciate it. I pity you for your blindness. Then again, a tiny minute piece of compassion hits me….See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil…… ;)

Let me clarify. I don’t read People or Fox and have turned down work for both. I am a journalist and certainly don’t live in a guilded cage. Perhaps I am guilty of looking at fashion websites after a hard project. And yes, the world is beautiful, there are many social and economic issues that you cannot just ignore. Fashion is an escape. And I do believe that some people hold onto that too much and focus on aesthetic too much to be concerened with what is going on around them. There is nothing wrong with this to a certain extent, But I do feel that this article Garance wrote hints upon an issue that can be reflected in the mainstream aesthetic. What do you think the aesthetics that are most prominent represent? I think they reflect the response that you gave me.

Couldn’t agree more, on Instagram there is almost a theme du jour, it takes guts to swim against the tide but it makes you more interesting. Flowers are a massive crowd pleaser on Insta – e.g the blossom in the sky shot, that’s ubiquitous right now. Whenever I post something a bit different e.g. a sign in a church, it gets virtually no likes. But I would rather mix it up than have a boring account.

Regarding interiors I hate the ‘catalogue’ look, I like something to like individual – I don’t mean hipster, I mean less mainstream – ha ha. See, even hipsters are now ubiquitous.

I love this post. You’re so right… Everything is getting to be the same, and it’s so tiring. I never get tired of the Pinterest apartment though! You mentioned a hammock, and that got me thinking. I would love to hear from you about the things that are so typically “Corsican”. I have roots in the caribbean coast of Colombia, and there’s a style I have because of my roots there… for example, I love hammocks, any muted tropical colors (especially when they look a little faded), anything having to do with the ocean, and some classic Latin stuff, like having a picture of The Last Supper above your dining room table. ;) Does your apartment reflect your Corsican roots? I would love to know.

Yes, I was just thinking about this too! I have a big, rustic dining table and I was just about to order some Eames-style chairs when I thought, “Wait, haven’t I seen this combination hundreds of times already?” (on the internet, in my friends’ homes, at the cafe, etc.) How do you balance what you like and what is popular? Is it even important to be different or original? OK, so these aren’t the deepest thoughts, but it’s all in good fun. Your website, however, is always original and inspiring to me. Even when the clothes are not practical for my lifestyle, I can appreciate the lines and shapes and borrow from that.

This article is again so on point!!! And you speak about lots of things that annoy me so hard all the time. But also lets not forget that trends being overwhelmingly strong and taking fully over… it was always like that but you had no proof. Styles and fashion do change more quickly through todays internet and social media.

*** is the best part of this article. It’s like support I was too shy to ask for.

I have been thinking the exact same thing as you… and I also have no solutions. I am resigned to just enjoying it while I like it (and maybe for a little while afterwards, so all those lovely London houses with all the trendy period features will stop being so popular and expensive – one can dream, right?) Although you’re braver than me – I don’t even own white jeans!

This is so true. I try to always differ from others, but in the end trends come to us and we cannot avoid liking most of them. And yeah those photos with the same poses, same style, same things def attracts more like. Also so true about interiors / decor. I am trying so hard to make my flat look different from what I see everywhere on Pinterest Tumblr but is so hard! :D Well I could actually have a pretty serious conversation about this (and really long) but I am not going to. I am just glad you shared this!!

Absolutely! I get my fill of benign design at hotels and restaurants (recently my husband and I notice that there is a dark grey paint that is making the rounds and signals the newest hot restaurant) Hotels? I always sleep great in a benign room…kinda gold, kinda wood, kinda white…

To make combat with pleasantly dull…I buy what I like at home. I never have a designer pick out anything. To that end I have an eclectic mix of things that almost is always demanding for the odd man to be thrown out. Next on my list is my dining table, it’s got to go but I’m waiting until reclaimed industrial is “over” to see what’s next. Recently, we added cats but I’m not liking at all what they do to my decor…

I agree with you, G. While I still appreciate looking at those types of accounts, I try to veer away as much as possible by looking at what other unique accounts have to offer. The types that are not really trying to please anything but are just staying true with their own character.

And, I really love this photo – that pop of red nail varnish against unfailingly calming denim and the little gold accents on the white bracelet… and those tassels (anything tasseled I adore)! I really like that the colours look pure and real, as if it hasn’t been filtered/tampered with… And – apart from the fresh, realistic lighting on this photo, aren’t all the other things in this photo simply everywhere right now, too (denim, red nail polish, tassels, white walls)? And, ironically, I love this shot, too!

I do agree that fashion, “what’s trending right now”, means it becomes challenging to distinguish whether we like something for what it is – what it means or represents to us innately – or whether (like your friend observed) we just “fall into” liking it because it’s (a) everywhere or (b) just neutral enough not to be an affront to our vision.

I don’t have an Instagram (or Twitter) account, as I can’t face seeing more of what I used to see on Facebook (lots of similar selfies and poses, all the same food shots, all the same filters used on the photos). It’s as if all the Facebook photo-posters have migrated to Instagram. And – like you said – too many white-denim skinny thigh shots, and shots taken of the beach/shore-line between the photographer’s even skinnier, naked knees. Just no more- please! And that’s the reason why this blog is so enjoyable – it’s none of the before-mentioned.

For the most part though, I think most of us come to like what we like (“the heart wants what the heart wants”) and love a certain style of dressing or and furniture home design, after we have spent a few years experiencing and seeing different architecture, clothing, furniture, countries and lifestyles. That (apartment, garden, painting, outfit, meal) which makes us gasp sharply with surprise and joy, and invigorates us so that we can pour back that energy and joy into our relationships, community and work – THAT’S when we have found a something we adore. And if we keep returning over and over to that same – or similar thing – THAT’S when I think we have established a certain leaning, or style.

Before moving our small family of three into our own place (two years ago, I designed the renovations and re-did the gutted interior, and started refurnishing it from nothing as we had no furniture but our beds), I combed through almost two hundred magazines and books – from original mid-century books on Scandinavian design from my grandfather and father’s architecture stash, old design books from second-hand stores – to brand new magazines from all around the globe depicting original and inspired homes from Japan (where it’s space poor and very clean), Korea (super interesting, modern, clean, spare spaces), Morrocco (the textures and colours) and old stilt homes in Queensland, Australia, and Malaysia. So many different styles and interpretations, and yet my design for our home turned out to be quite different from what I’d originally imagined it would turn out to be.

Everyone who spends time in our home say that they feel so calm and happy here. And I think that’s what you really want to create for yourself: a place where you can be happy, so you can spread that happiness to everyone else – whether it happens to be all bare and stainless-steel concrete minimalist, or busy full-on Victorian (not my style at all, but I do love visiting homes like this!), or 70s retro plain white walls with full length windows (that look out on to original 70s fish ferns and an elephant-ear plant fernery — no one but seventies folk had a fernery, hahaha) and wood floors and bits of favourite and well-loved furniture (this last description would be of our home, where every single piece of our furniture, except for our beds and TV and art work, ended up coming from an apartment that my parents sold about the time our on home renovations were completed… and all the furniture was chosen over a period of about five years, from vastly different places!).

I feel like a home- like fashion – as long as it inspires you, that is all that matters. As one of your posters observed, our homes and fashion don’t need to be fashionable, original, or – I’d add – even attractive. To love what we have before us, and to enjoy its practicality (and for me – in a home – its ease of maintenance) is more than enough :-)

Oh that is incredible! You just put into words what I was feeling like lately. Over the last weeks I pinned a lot less, and I nearly stopped looking at my Instagram feed, as if I just got bored when I could spend hours doing that before. I just moved into a new flat, and while I absolutely love the all white everything that Scandinavian decors have, I also told myself that I did not want to have a cliche apartment. So I will mix it a little with my childhood loves from the Basque Country where I grew up. Could research, minimalism and personality help? I hope so. I think that a flat can only look striking if it looks like you and not like a Home decor magazine. I guess it is about finding the right balance between trend and personality, and since all these shops, blogs and magazines are always in front of our eyes, maybe sometimes we get too carried away with trends and forget what we really like inside of us?

So…stop caring too much about likes and trends. Make your own style without worrying if it is in or out the trend. I don’t care about any of this. The shoes I liked on Net a Porter are still following me every site I go in. And I laugh because the site didn’t realize that it makes the opposite reaction on me and on so many people: we just don’t care how desperate you (the site) want me to buy your shoes because… I am not desperate to buy it! No matter who was wearing it on Instagram, no matter who Pinterest it. As I just don’t care how many people liked my photos on Instagram. I like it! It is there for me to begin with. Well, my Instagram is not a narcissist mosaic. And yes I am in fashion industry… I am the client! So…stop, look and listen to Billy Joel’s song Vienna. Trust me: it works every time. XoXo!!!

You have a lovely blog that I do really enjoy reading. I look forward to a little brain respite in the middle of my 9 to 5 or any other time of the day for that matter. Oh dear though…again I love your site Garance, but you’re starting to bring me down. This is very similar to your I’m sick of NY piece.

I find myself in judgement when things do not meet my aesthetic expecations- because my online filters are so “curated”.. I also started to realize that it was impacting my self esteem not to see more variety of real bodies on my pinterest,/feedly/instagram feeds. I started following My Body Gallery on Pinterest so I would have a variety of exposure to new things.. Anyone else have recommendations for “doses of reality” in their feeds?

I agree whole heartedly – For instance wide leg jeans are suppose to be popular right now but 99.9% of the jeans that are posted on instagram, pintrest, and blogs post are skinny jeans. I guess we will see more of the 70’s style jeans in a year or so.

I have been noticing this recently too! I lived in a small small city for the past year and got most of my fashion inspiration online and felt sort of unique there. And then I moved back to Toronto…and everyone is wearing the same stuff! I genuinely like the dominant style right now (yay sneakers instead of heels!), but now I try to only wear a couple of trendy items at a time.

I appreciate the “curation,” to use the current phrase, of mass-circulation publications. The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Atlantic–they all cover diverse topics that I ordinarily wouldn’t be interested in. But they present the topics in an interesting way and introduce me to new ideas or to old ones I just wasn’t aware of. It’s sort of like assigned books in school–you might prefer sci-fi, but then you find out that Mark Twain is just hilarious. You’d never have known without it being pushed at you.

I sometimes read this blog to see lovely pics Garance and i think you have a great editor quality, obviously. But i think you are drawning in shallow topics you are more than these decors, styles. I am sorry to say this maybe i am being a little bit too harsh please do not take me wrong but as i designer i think that there is an explosion of styling every service, restaurant & products and this is making everything loose its core meaning or the style it grows within time. It is hard to digest when the history & culture is not involved in the soul of restaurants, clothes or any other thing. Trends are like breezes they go away very quickly and they are not the meaning of life. Maybe this shallow topics gives you boredom because they are obviously not the meaning of life. Whatever besides this i think you have a better art quality you should not underestimate your potential.

I love FIKA, too. It has been my go to for a while now. The coffee is excellent and I really, really have to convince myself that I do NOT need one of their amazing cardamon buns every time I go. Eating one daily is no way to approach looking good in skinny white jeans, that’s for sure!

I’m kinda new to instagram and when I found it I went crazy and started following heaps of blogs. Recently I’ve been looking at the pics people post of themselves and just find the poses so embarrassing. Everyone trying to look like models-same hair, same make up, it’s weird!!

Well, the globalisation has its effects everywhere, including style. Almost every brand is available online, so, when looking at fashion blogs or Instagram, I tend to see mostly a handful of styles endlessly repeated. Then we have same faces everywhere – women get same facial treatments all over the world and they end up with identical forheads, noses, lips, cheeks and teeth. And the list goes on.

Its good to know that you are so self aware. Yes its true that all of this became this massive cliche. But truth the told you were that pionoreed in particular the “white crisp” lifestyle that is standard for the loads of bloggers. So if someone has the right to it its you.
Although i did find attractive all you mention in this post, it was always way too contrived for my style, so boredom alteady set in, its everywhere, and i wont stop for it anymore.

The funny thing is that the post is illustrated with a photo of a bracelet that I’ve seen at least 3 other Fashion Bloggers wear. Aurelie Biedermann is everyone’s taste, too. In fact, I believe there are brands that live off of these Bloggers, Biedermann being one of them (and Mansur Gavriel, Hay, Marant…)

Thank you for the last sentence. As a company who definitely has a niche market, we’re always weighing whether to photograph our clothing in the requisite “California/Instagram-y way” or give talented photographers the freedom to show our clothes in a truly creative way. It takes a lot of bravery to forge your own path!

What you’re saying behind the *** is so true… it seems like we’re all pressured into posting the same stuff. Not saying we’re a victim and so be it, but it is a little discouraging when you post a picture you really love (hell, you’re even proud of and excited to share) and you get MAYBE 1/3 of the likes you normally get.

In those moments I always ask myself what the point is, really. You think people follow you (and like your posts) because of your personal style (whether or not it is super unique), but the second you post something else it almost seems like you are asking for a loss of followers.

I’ll stick to doing my own thing (which sometimes looks like the rest, but is also sometimes completely different) and ignore the decrease in likes (or a few followers). After all… We create a brand that we hope people will love for what it is, right? In the end it may be a good thing that the “haters” leave… you didn’t write/post for them in the first place.

As someone that works in health care, I find it helpful to have comfortable, easy and somewhat *anonymous* clothing. For that, the trend towards simple clothes and comfortable shoes has been really good for me! I think the problem is when the bloggers/instagramers get too snobbish about their aesthetic to enjoy anything different. I’m grateful to the strange dressers of San Francisco for making my day more interesting even though my wardrobe is usually on the more average side.

I really relate to what you’re saying- I am a med student and ‘anonymous’ clothing is my go to. I used to love different cuts and something a bit more extraordinary and out there, but now I think this period of “celibacy” has taught me so much about myself, self-expression and fashion (presentation) in relation to others. Unfortunately my non-md fashion forward friends don’t understand this new mindset. Oh well, different experiences and stuff.

Totally agree. I’ve been looking to Korea for fresh style inspirations – there’s a bolder use of colours and there are some interesting silhouettes there, especially the relaxed ones that have a bit of androgyny. Here’s one brand that I think cover the spectrum of Korean styles.http://www.luckychouette.com/